CHARLES DICKENS: CONCEPT OF HUMOUR IN GREAT EXPECTATIONS,

PLOT CONSTRUCTION IN GREAT EXPECTATIONS, THE CLASH OF SOCIAL

CLASSES IN GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Throughout Great Expectations, Dickens explores the class system of Victorian

England, ranging from the most wretched criminals (Magwitch) to the poor
peasants of the marsh country (Joe and Biddy) to the middle class (Pumblechook)
to the very rich (Miss Havisham). The theme of social class is central to the
novels plot and to the ultimate moral theme of the bookPips realization that
wealth and class are less important than affection, loyalty, and inner worth. Pip
achieves this realization when he is finally able to understand that, despite the
esteem in which he holds Estella, ones social status is in no way connected to
ones real character. Drummle, for instance, is an upper-class lout, while
Magwitch, a persecuted convict, has a deep inner worth.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember about the novels treatment of
social class is that the class system it portrays is based on the post-Industrial
Revolution model of Victorian England. Dickens generally ignores the nobility and
the hereditary aristocracy in favor of characters whose fortunes have been
earned through commerce. Even Miss Havishams family fortune was made
through the brewery that is still connected to her manor. In this way, by
connecting the theme of social class to the idea of work and self-advancement,
Dickens subtly reinforces the novels overarching theme of ambition and selfimprovement.
Great Expectations is set in early Victorian England, a time when great social
changes were sweeping the nation. The Industrial Revolution of the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries had transformed the social landscape,
enabling capitalists and manufacturers to amass huge fortunes. Although social
class was no longer entirely dependent on the circumstances of ones birth, the
divisions between rich and poor remained nearly as wide as ever. London, a
teeming mass of humanity, lit by gas lamps at night and darkened by black
clouds from smokestacks during the day, formed a sharp contrast with the
nations sparsely populated rural areas. More and more people moved from the
country to the city in search of greater economic opportunity. Throughout
England, the manners of the upper class were very strict and conservative:
gentlemen and ladies were expected to have thorough classical educations and
to behave appropriately in innumerable social situations.
It is essential to realise that Dickens carefully structured this excellent story by
dividing it into three distinct stages. These actually relate to the three volumes of
the first edition when this novel first was published, but even though we do not
have this novel divided up now, it is still important to consider the structure and
how and why it is divided into three books.
As a bildungsroman, Great Expectations presents the growth and development of
a single character, Philip Pirrip, better known to himself and to the world as Pip.

As the focus of the bildungsroman, Pip is by far the most important character in
Great Expectations: he is both the protagonist, whose actions make up the main
plot of the novel, and the narrator, whose thoughts and attitudes shape the
readers perception of the story. As a result, developing an understanding of Pips
character is perhaps the most important step in understanding Great
Expectations.

EMILY BRONTE: TWO TYPES OD NARRATORS IN W. HEIGHTS; GOTHIC

ELEMENTS IN W. HEIGHTS, PLOT CONSTRUCTION
Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Bront, written between October 1845 and
June 1846. Wuthering Heights is the name of the farmhouse on the North York
Moors where the story unfolds. The book's core theme is the destructive effect
that jealousy and vengefulness have, both on the jealous or vengeful individuals
and on their communities.

Although Wuthering Heights is now widely regarded as a classic of English

literature, it received mixed reviews when first published, and was considered
controversial because its depiction of mental and physical cruelty was unusually
stark, and it challenged strict Victorian ideals of the day, including religious
hypocrisy, morality, social classes and gender inequality.

Any serious discussion of Wuthering Heights must consider the complex point of
view that Bront chose. Lockwood tells the entire story, but except for his
experiences as the renter of Thrushcross Grange and his response to Nelly and
the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights, he repeats what Nellie tells him;
occasionally she is narrating what others have told her, e.g., Isabella's
experiences at Wuthering Heights or the servant Zillah's view of events.
Consequently, at times we are three steps removed from events. Contrary to
what might be expected with such narrative distance from events, we do not feel
emotionally distant from the characters or events. Indeed, most readers are
swept along by the impetuosity and tempestuous behavior of Heathcliff and
Catherine, even if occasionally confused by the time shifts and the duplication of
names. Bront's ability to sweep the reader while distancing the narration reveals
her mastery of her material and her genius as a writer.
What makes a work Gothic is a combination of at least some of these elements:
a castle, ruined or intact, haunted or not (the castle plays such a key role that it
has been called the main character of the Gothic novel), ruined buildings which
are sinister or which arouse a pleasing melancholy, dungeons, underground

passages, crypts, and catacombs which, in modern houses, become spooky

basements or attics, labyrinths, dark corridors, and winding stairs, shadows, a
beam of moonlight in the blackness, a flickering candle, or the only source of
light failing (a candle blown out or, today, an electric failure), extreme
landscapes, like rugged mountains, thick forests, or icy wastes, and extreme
weather, omens and ancestral curses,magic, supernatural manifestations, or the
suggestion of the supernatural, a passion-driven, wilful villain-hero or villain, a
curious heroine with a tendency to faint and a need to be rescuedfrequently, a
hero whose true identity is revealed by the end of the novel, horrifying (or
terrifying) events or the threat of such happenings.
The Gothic creates feelings of gloom, mystery, and suspense and tends to the
dramatic and the sensational, like incest, diabolism, necrophilia, and nameless
terrors. It crosses boundaries, daylight and the dark, life and death,
consciousness and unconsciousness. Sometimes covertly, sometimes explicitly, it
presents transgression, taboos, and fearsfears of violation, of imprisonment, of
social chaos, and of emotional collapse.

THOMAS HARDY: CONCEPT OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, MORAL

DILEMMA (DID SHE DESERVED THE PUNISHMENT OR NOT), CONCEPT OF
NATURE, PLOT CONSTRUCTION

Unfairness dominates the lives of Tess and her family to such an extent that it
begins to seem like a general aspect of human existence in Tess of the
dUrbervilles. Tess does not mean to kill Prince, but she is punished anyway, just
as she is unfairly punished for her own rape by Alec. Nor is there justice waiting
in heaven. Christianity teaches that there is compensation in the afterlife for
unhappiness suffered in this life, but the only devout Christian encountered in the
novel may be the reverend, Mr. Clare, who seems more or less content in his life
anyway. For others in their misery, Christianity offers little solace of heavenly
justice. Mrs. Durbeyfield never mentions otherworldly rewards. The converted
Alec preaches heavenly justice for earthly sinners, but his faith seems shallow
and insincere. Generally, the moral atmosphere of the novel is not Christian
justice at all, but pagan injustice. The forces that rule human life are absolutely
unpredictable and not necessarily well-disposed to us. The pre-Christian rituals
practiced by the farm workers at the opening of the novel, and Tesss final rest at
Stonehenge at the end, remind us of a world where the gods are not just and fair,
but whimsical and uncaring. When the narrator concludes the novel with the
statement that Justice was done, and the President of the Immortals (in the
Aeschylean phrase) had ended his sport with Tess, we are reminded that justice
must be put in ironic quotation marks, since it is not really just at all. What
passes for Justice is in fact one of the pagan gods enjoying a bit of sport, or a
frivolous game.

One of the recurrent themes of the novel is the way in which men can dominate
women, exerting a power over them linked primarily to their maleness.
Sometimes this command is purposeful, in the mans full knowledge of his
exploitation, as when Alec acknowledges how bad he is for seducing Tess for his
own momentary pleasure. Alecs act of abuse, the most life-altering event that
Tess experiences in the novel, is clearly the most serious instance of male
domination over a female. But there are other, less blatant examples of womens
passivity toward dominant men. When, after Angel reveals that he prefers Tess,
Tesss friend Retty attempts suicide and her friend Marian becomes an alcoholic,
which makes their earlier schoolgirl-type crushes on Angel seem disturbing. This
devotion is not merely fanciful love, but unhealthy obsession. These girls appear
utterly dominated by a desire for a man who, we are told explicitly, does not even
realize that they are interested in him. This sort of unconscious male domination
of women is perhaps even more unsettling than Alecs outward and self-conscious
cruelty.

Images of birds recur throughout the novel, evoking or contradicting their

traditional spiritual association with a higher realm of transcendence. Both the
Christian dove of peace and the Romantic songbirds of Keats and Shelley, which
symbolize sublime heights, lead us to expect that birds will have positive
meaning in this novel. Tess occasionally hears birdcalls on her frequent hikes
across the countryside; their free expressiveness stands in stark contrast to
Tesss silent and constrained existence as a wronged and disgraced girl. When
Tess goes to work for Mrs. dUrberville, she is surprised to find that the old
womans pet finches are frequently released to fly free throughout the room.
These birds offer images of hope and liberation. Yet there is irony attached to
birds as well, making us doubt whether these images of hope and freedom are
illusory. Mrs. dUrbervilles birds leave little white spots on the upholstery, which
presumably some servantperhaps Tess herselfwill have to clean. It may be
that freedom for one creature entails hardship for another, just as Alecs free
enjoyment of Tesss body leads her to a lifetime of suffering. In the end, when
Tess encounters the pheasants maimed by hunters and lying in agony, birds no
longer seem free, but rather oppressed and submissive. These pheasants are no
Romantic songbirds hovering far above the Earththey are victims of earthly
violence, condemned to suffer down below and never fly again.